Newcastle United's impressive start to the Premier League campaign has been built on a core of ten players. Eddie Howe's side are currently occupying a Champions League berth as we head into the winter break.
The pause for the World Cup in Qatar will give Newcastle players and staff a brief break before returning for a mini pre-season in December. The Toon have picked up where they left off last season and reaffirmed their place as one of the in-form teams in the Premier League for the calendar year of 2022.
Howe and his coaching staff have done an incredible job of transforming a stagnating side, with the help of a few additions. Newcastle have a relatively settled starting XI and that's shown by the blue chip players that the head coach regularly calls upon.
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Only nine of 24 senior outfield players have managed more than 1,000 minutes. Nick Pope (1,350) is the most relied upon player for the Magpies this season, with Kieran Tripper (1,327), Miguel Almiron (1,264), Fabian Schar (1,245), Dan Burn (1,227), Joe Willock (1,121), Joelinton (1,060), Sven Botman (1,059) and Sean Longstaff (1,059) making up the top nine most picked.
Bruno Guimaraes comes in at tenth place having played 999 minutes, narrowly missing out on the 1,000 club. Callum Wilson, as we know, is Howe's first choice striker, but injury problems have limited him to just 795 minutes this season.
Jacob Murphy (487) and Matt Targett (421) have been reliable from the bench this season. While the injured Allan Saint-Maximin has clocked up just 378 minutes this season.
Ryan Fraser looked to have kick started his Newcastle career last term, but has struggled with just 311 minutes to his name, while Janaury arrival, Chris Wood, has just 265 minutes.
Fellow new arrival, Alexander Isak, managed just 244 minutes before picking up and injury which would rule him out for the vast majority of the season to date. Captain Jamaal Lascelles just edges over 100 minutes with 107 played so far.
Six players are yet to play over 100 minutes, with Elliot Anderson (96 minutes), Jonjo Shelvey (34 minutes). Javier Manquillo (10 minutes), Jamal Lewis (seven minutes), Emil Krafth (one minute) and Matt Ritchie (one minute) all struggling for game time for various reasons.
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